


Harassment

by blackfilm



Category: Neon Genesis Evangelion
Genre: Anime/Manga Fusion, Gen, Students, Translation in English, University
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-16
Updated: 2020-04-16
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:48:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23683393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackfilm/pseuds/blackfilm
Summary: Man finds himself a friend.(An alternative to Google Translate.Not great, not terrible)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 7





	Harassment

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [Харассмент](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23250778) by [blackfilm](https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackfilm/pseuds/blackfilm). 



> To my beta Sockpuppett15: I am deeply grateful for your help!

  
  
  
Just two minutes into the lecture Fuyutsuki notices the guy.

His memory is quite good when it comes to faces, and he recognizes the man sitting in the last row of seats at a glance: even trying his best, Gendo couldn't fit in with the third-year students...or did he intend to fail while pulling off his mimicry? There are times Fuyutsuki could swear Gendo is attempting to catch his eye as he addresses the audience—what's worse, he's getting the suspicion that his unwanted guest is smiling.

After the lecture he has a few words with the students—follow-up questions, as routine. Gendo is humbly awaiting his turn, staying in the distance.

His right hand is still in a cast, Fuyutsuki notes.

“Didn't know the unresolved conflicts of oral stage are now a part of Physics programme,” says Fuyutsuki when they're finally alone. Gendo turns to him readily:

“No, they don't indulge us like that. But metaphysical biology is quite intriguing thing. With the right tutor, I imagine.”

Fuyutsuki doesn't reply. He picks up all his lecture materials and put them in the briefcase, topping with the CD-ROMs. His pens go into the pen loops.

“Would you like to grab a bear or something?” Gendo offers, “I know a pretty good restaurant near Kurodani Temple.”

“No.” The rejection sounds rude even to him, so Fuyutsuki specifies: “I have another meeting planned for today.”

It's true—he really does have a dinner reservation in Yamashina, meeting the colleague. It is also true that this dinner is more than an hour from now.

As Rokubungi comes closer, Fuyutsuki spots that strange shade of his eyes: almost blue, but not quite, not pure blue—no, it's more like the color of clear spring sky reflected in a muddy pool. Color of the upside down sky, he muses.

And there's something off-putting in them but he couldn't name exactly what is wrong. Maybe it's his unblinking gaze, as if Rokubungi's staring at an inanimate object instead of a man.

“Well, perhaps next time,” Gendo ends. “It was a pleasure talking to you, Professor Fuyutsuki.”

Fuyutsuki can't return the sentiment.  
  
***  
  
Not even a week later he encounters him again. On the way out of his lab, where he briefly checked the last test the sophomores took—the results were not what he would call particularly consoling.

“Rokubungi,” he says instead of a greeting, not even bothering to hide his annoyance anymore.

Rokubungi pushes off the wall he was leaning against. He looks different somehow: worn leather jacket, black jeans, skin-tight turtleneck, and Fuyutsuki finally realizes what his unpleasant gaze reminded him of. That was the way some thugs stare at you on the subway—the ones who have brass knuckles in their pockets, or worse.

“I thought this would be better than to show up at a lecture,” he explains, and his voice has a rough edge of a person just woken up.

“I question why you keep showing up at all,” Fuyutsuki retorts.

Gendo grins like he's heard a good joke. He casts his eyes down for a moment, and in this flutter of eyelashes comes strange shyness discordant with his appearance. A fresh scrape decorates his cheek—or is it a shaving cut?

“The mere fact I bailed you out doesn't make us friends,” Fuyutsuki is making an effort to sound harsh—better to solve this misunderstanding once and for all, he thinks. “And as a university professor I shouldn't have done that in principle.”

“I understand. And I'd like to return the favor.”

“Don't bother.”

Yui Ikari, he decides, is an ideal woman except for her taste in men.

He heard that in his first year Rokubungi presented an empty piece of paper instead of a student questionnaire on biographic topics.

The past doesn't mean anything. It's irrelevant—that was his reply to the legitimate bewilderment of the instructor.

In Fuyutsuki's opinion, it was Rokubungi who himself had been at most the meaningless rebel. Trivial acting out to draw attention; it's easy to stand out as a bad example, but it takes sustained efforts and hard work to make something remarkably good out of your life.

He hands over the keys to the security and picks up his briefcase with the trench coat on his other hand. Gendo leaves the building with him, but keeps his distance.

It's same autumn outside. Rather cold and the sky is heavy with clouds, but the ground has already dried up after yesterday's rain. A gust of wind blows the golden leaves off the ginkgo* and drags them across the pavement with a soft rustling.

Fuyutsuki stops to put on his coat. He notices for a first time how pitifully old-fashioned his car looks among Daihatsus and Nissans populating the parking lot. Isn't it time to change the model for something more classy? After all, he can afford it.

While he's looking for the car's keys in his pockets, Gendo speaks:

“I can be useful to you.”

“How?” he wonders automatically, catching the keys in the coat's left pocket. He's glancing at Gendo—the young man's arms are folded across his chest, and he bites his bottom lip nervously.

“I have connections. Access to...archives of a certain sort. I could provide you with information. The right people. My help. Myself.”

The last word he uttered quietly, as if suddenly losing his confidence.

Fuyutsuki blinks. Then shakes his head:

“Farewell, Rokubungi.”

He opens the door and climbs into his car.

He is sitting inside for some time feeling strange lightness in his head, and rubs his face vigorously to pull himself together. Did he get the wrong impression, or did Gendo Rokubungi just...offer him his body? No, no, that can't be. Gendo probably implied working with him or dragging him into some elaborate gamble—that is very likely with him—and chose his words poorly. Sure, he's strange, but not a lunatic.

I should inform Yui that her boyfriend is acting a bit obsessive, he thinks absently. To hint her in a gentle way that he want nothing to do with Gendo. And the old bitterness comes back again: how could a girl of such delicacy pick someone like Gendo as her partner? He's God's creation reflected in mud, yet she doesn't seem to notice that. Or does she choose not to notice? No, a belated realization comes, the truth is she sees all the world through her loving soul. And for her all living creatures are equally beautiful.

And on the next day he founds a paper on his desk which certainly wasn't there when he left for a lunch break. It's a printed photocopy of an aged document in German. The word GEHEIM* with almost unreadable exclamation mark is familiar to him. Other words he checks up in the dictionary, one by one, frowning harder and harder and double-checking the spelling. He considerately locked up the door before that. Then he gets up and carries the document to the adjacent office where he's watching it being ingested by shredder.

He knows the fragment of what he just saw. But he doesn't understand how Gendo Rokubungi could extract that fragment. These post-war wounds had long time been healed—or so he thought.

“Much wisdom is much grief,” he says to the shredder and pats his side lightly.

He would die to ask Gendo that question in person, but he won't have an opportunity in the foreseeable future.  
  
  
  
  
\------

*A Japanese tree. "It is believed to have first appeared in Japan around 1,000 years ago and is now an integral part of the Japanese landscape." -- https://www.japan-experience.com/to-know/understanding-japan/ginkgo-trees

*(German) secret


End file.
